Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
We are set in the body of Christ by the will of God. Some are set in the church to care for the church.
When we are set in the church to do the work of the ministry, we are equipped by God for that work to which He has called us.
Ephesian 4:8, 11-12 ... the ministry offices ... When He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men ... And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Also in the church, there are the spiritual gifts of "helps" and also various administrative gifts that go along with elder/bishop. (Titus 1 ... only men are elder/bishop ... husband of one wife ... having their children under control ... )
But in everything, it is God who enables us and equips us according to HIS will according to the work HE calls us to do in the church.
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After I was born again in 1975, I was asleep in the night. I was "transported" into heaven. I was with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit. I saw no images. It was a spiritual experience. At that time I was "merged" into the body of Jesus, made one with the Word of God, God and the Holy Spirit witnessing.
A few nights after this, the exact same thing happened again.
I was asleep in the night and was "transported" into heaven. I was made one with Jesus, The Word of God, God and the Holy Spirit witnessing. No images. It was an experience in the Spirit.
After that, I was on fire for things of God.
All I wanted to do after this was read the Bible and learn about things of God.
God would take me to various scriptures to show me what HE wanted me to do.
HOW? God would call the scripture to my mind. I would look up that scripture and focus on it.
One of the first scriptures I remember being called to my attention was the following:
John 5:30 Jesus said: I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
I had no idea that I had been called to be a minister. I didn't even know a woman could do this. I did think I might marry a minister because I had such an intense love for Bible, the things of God, and the church.
Over the next three years, God got me where HE wanted me by "spoon feeding" me scripture. When I digested that scripture, I would be reminded of another scripture. I would then "eat" that scripture, allowing it to be applied to my life... digesting the scripture.
I read the Bible of course, yet it was the focus on those scriptures given me by the Spirit of God, that really got me where God wanted me.
I was also given several dreams along the way, to show me what to do.
In one dream, I was travelling with a small group of people. We landed on an island. It was like a pineapple field, hot and dirty. There were some children on that island. All of a sudden, I realized I was going to be left on that island to care for those children. I said, "I won't stay. I won't ... unless YOU want me to." God did want me to stay and take care of those children. There was a pastor and his wife on the island, but he wouldn't come out of his house.
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At one point, by prophecy, God said to me: "I have called you and set you in the body of Christ as an apostle."
"Apostle?" I cried out! "What is an apostle?"
I didn't tell anyone at that time what I'd heard. I did however begin to try to find out what an apostle did in the church.
After Jesus arose, after the crucifixion and resurrection. HE gave ministry offices to care for the church.
Ephesians 4:11-12 And HE gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
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The church I attended at that time professed to believe there were apostles and prophets in the church.
I asked my Sunday school teacher about apostles, without telling him what I'd heard from God.
I asked what the NT apostles did in the church. I asked who they were in our church group. He didn't know.
But God began teaching me by various scriptures. The first section of scripture I was taken to was the following:
Acts 15 ... A problem arose in the NT church concerning a doctrine. What to do? So the apostles and elders met to consider this problem. Peter gave his godly advice. Paul gave information. Then James stood up among them and said: Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:19-20)
I saw that apostles dealt with church doctrine and set forth godly concepts for the NT church.
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We live in a very unique time. We live in the end time where there is apostasy inside the church itself. Doctrines of Christ are often removed completely from the church and other doctrines are set up to rule over the church.
But we hold fast to the doctrines of Christ as set forth in the Bible and refuse all other doctrines.
One of the main works of an apostle in the NT church is to deal with church doctrine.
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Prophets in the NT church bring corrections and information as given by the Spirit of God. We see an example of this in Acts 11 & Acts 21 as Agabus, a NT prophet, worked in the church.
Acts 11:27-29 And in these days (in NT church) came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:
Acts 21:10-11 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
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II Corinthians 3:5-6 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
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We don't go to college to learn what to do in these ministry offices. Neither do we copy one another. Rather we allow God to raise us up as HE wills, leading us by HIS Spirit through the Holy Scriptures, making ways for the gifts HE gives us to be used in the church.
July 1979, I had become fully persuaded I was to go into the ministry. I closed my business in Dallas and simply stayed at my apartment reading Bible and doing what I saw to do.
On the night of January 10, 1980, I was sleeping and was awakened by a very loud trumpet-like voice speaking three words into my ear. "Hartford, Seattle, KWJS"
It turned out that KWJS was a radio station. I asked God, "Are you telling me to go on radio? I wouldn't know how to do that?"
The Holy Spirit brought the following gentle thought to my mind: "Call the radio station manager."
I called the KWJS radio station office that same morning, as soon as I thought they would be opened. I asked to speak to the station manager and was connected immediately to him. I told him God might be showing me to go on radio and I asked him, "How would you do that?"
He told me to make an audition tape 29 1/2 minutes long and send it to him and if I fit their programming he would offer me a contract.
I made a tape that same morning and sent it by US mail. Within 5 days, I was on radio KWJS, broadcasting exhortations to the church.
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March 2012, I was given a dream. A woman was singing. I said, "It's a little voice, but it's a nice little voice." As the dream continued, I saw it was a way to communicate with the church through a blog.
I had never before seen a blog. Pam Padgett in our little church group was a computer programmer at Fed Ex at that time. I asked Pam if she could set up a blog for us. She said she didn't know anything about blogs but she probably could find out how to do that.
Within 3 days, we had a blog and were exhorting the church daily all over the world.
Jesus Ministries Exhortations
It is a "little voice" but a "nice little voice".
God knows how to get us exactly where HE wants us!
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